Bonus Recipe: Maple Pecan Granola
Light & crunchy granola flavored with brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon & a pinch of salt.
Hi!
I wish you were sitting in my kitchen right now so I could make you a bowl of maple pecan granola for breakfast. It’s light and crunchy, sweetened with maple syrup and brown sugar and has the perfect amount of salt, cinnamon and vanilla to complement the maple pecan flavor.
It’s granola perfection.
I know, because I’ve quietly been making granola every week in a quest to find the perfect recipe. It kept turning out fine but not great. Some recipes were bland, some were too sweet and many were overly complicated. Sometimes the texture was too soft and not crunchy enough.
But this granola hits all the marks. The texture is light, airy and crispy. This is partially because of the addition of Rice Krispies cereal, which turns into tiny toasted bits that are crispy and caramelized. It’s also the maple syrup and brown sugar, a combination that doesn’t weigh the oats down with moisture or turn the oats into hard clumps. The flavor is sweet but not too sweet, it’s a wholesome treat that I hope you enjoy!
Maple Pecan Granola
Servings: About 4 cups
Cooking Method: Mix and Bake
Cooking Time: About 10 minutes to mix together + 50 minute to bake
This recipe is adapted from Dawn Perry’s Maple Coconut Granola in Ready, Set, Cook.
A printable pdf version of this recipe can be found at the bottom of the post.
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups rolled oats (also called old fashioned oats)
1 ½ cups Rice Krispies cereal, or any similar generic puffed rice cereal
1 to 2 cups raw whole pecan halves (or use another type of raw nut or pumpkin seeds)
⅓ cup coconut oil, sunflower oil or unsalted butter (I use coconut oil)
⅓ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
¼ cup pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¾ teaspoon table salt
Instructions
Heat the oven to 300F.
Combine the oats, cereal and pecans in a large bowl.
In a smaller bowl, melt the butter or coconut oil with the brown sugar in a microwave for 35 seconds.
Mix the syrup, vanilla, cinnamon and salt into the bowl with the oil and brown sugar.
Pour the wet mixture over the oats, cereal and pecans, mixing really well to completely coat the oats.
Spread the granola out evenly on a large rimmed baking sheet.
Bake for 50 minutes. Do NOT stir! Just leave the granola alone to bake into toasted perfection. The granola should be nicely browned, but definitely not burnt. If you start smelling burnt oats at the 45 minute mark, you can take it out early.
Let the granola cool completely before touching or eating it. This will take close to an hour. Then loosen with a spatula and store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.
After it bakes, you can add in additional ingredients like dried fruit, toasted coconut, hemp seeds or chia seeds.
Notes
If you want to make this nut-free, just leave out the nuts and add 1/2 cup more of oats.
You can use pumpkin spice instead of cinnamon for an autumn flavor.
Don’t use salted butter; it will make the granola too salty.
